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July 1969. It's a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy's challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out.

It is only seven months since NASA's made a bold decision to send Apollo 8 all the way to the moon on the first manned flight of the massive Saturn V rocket.

Now, on the morning of July 16, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sit atop another Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The three-stage 363-foot rocket will use its 7.5 million pounds of thrust to propel them into space and into history.

I remember it quite well. I had just graduated high school in May, I was working as a stock clerk/bagger in the local Kroger store. I watched the night before really glued to what I was seeing, and stayed up late to keep watching, had to get up at 4am the next day, that's when we recieved trucks in to stock. I remember being really tired, but couldn't wait to get home to see what else was being broadcast that evening. It was big stuff for me, the film 2001 A Space Odyssey had just come out the year before, and here we were living it. I'll always remember that, just as much as when Kennedy was shot. The first time I ever remember a tv in school was at the start of the space program, with Alan Shepard the second person to go in space and the first American.

I was a 17 year old at the time. I remember walking past a church and listening to the landing on my transistor radio. I stopped and said a silent prayer for the Apollo 11 crew as they started down to the moon. Even as a much younger kid I always stayed up late to watch the earlier Mercury and Gemini missions as they lifted off. I loved watching anything that had to do with flying and outer space, and always read every copy of the National Geographic Magazines that contained anything about aviation and going into space.

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Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convenience store and not a government agency!

I remember being in awe watching it on my parents little B&W TV screen, and taking pictures of the screen with an old SLR on a homemade tripod (had to use that to get both scans of the interlaced image).

I was at a Go Cart race in Woodland, Washington, my brother & I found a clubhouse in a nearby park with a TV and believe it or not (hard if you knew what motor-heads we were/are) we took off from the race to watch the landing live. Then later we watched the first walk at Grandma & Grandpa's.

Ironic that the man who narrated it all for us passed on today.

I believe we went. Saddest part of it though is how that generation went to the MOON in 7 years without having a clue how to do it when they started. Today it would take us 15 years to go back if we decided to do it today. My parents and grandparents put men on the moon, my children can barely get 150 miles off the ground. In less then a year they won't even be able to do that when the Shuttle retires in 2010.

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"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see" John W Lennon

"People do not quit playing because they grow old, they grow old because they quit playing" George Bernard Shaw

Click on this for a really big version (2349x2362) that shows just how flimsy the Lunar Module was. Cardboard, mylar & duct tape, man!

More evidence that we never really went there?

A big fan of Capricorn One? Summary:When the head of NASA's manned Mars missions discovers that the capsule meant to carry the astronauts will suffer a catastrophic failure, he forces the three astronauts to participate in a hoax by broadcasting their 'Mission' from a studio built at a now abandoned air force base. Over the many months of the mission, the astronauts send broadcasts to Earth on their progress and all goes well until their space capsule burns up on re-entry. They soon realize that the only way for the hoax to be maintained is for them to die and they make a desperate attempt to escape their captors. Throughout this period, an investigative reporter gets wind of the fact that something is amiss with man's first mission to Mars and slowly puts together the pieces of the mystery.

I remember being at home and my dad making all if us kids sit and watch the moon landing. My Dad kept saying it was history in the making. Later the family all watch the first steps. That is the only time I can remember that I was made to watch TV. I am glad he did!

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